SpaceX Shares Retreat
SpaceX shares moved lower in pre-market trading on Friday as investors reacted to heightened short-selling activity, delays to the company’s latest Starship mission and new developments surrounding its major shareholders.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. stock closed Thursday’s session at $118.24 after gaining 2.59%. The shares traded as high as approximately $118.80 during the session after recovering from an intraday low near $111.
However, the stock surrendered some of those gains before the opening bell on Friday. SpaceX shares were trading at approximately $115.94., which represented a pre-market decline of 1.95%.
SpaceX stock price (Source: Google Finance)
Despite Thursday’s rebound, the stock is still way below its post-initial public offering high of $225.64. SpaceX went public in June at an IPO price of $135 per share, but concerns about the company’s valuation, spending requirements and future shareholder sales contributed to a lot of volatility.
Short sellers have accumulated an estimated $15.5 billion in paper profits since the IPO as SpaceX shares fell below their offer price. Around 360 million shares, which is equivalent to approximately 56% of the company’s freely tradable stock, were reportedly on loan to short sellers.
Alphabet Reveals Major SpaceX Investment
Alphabet also disclosed a big investment in SpaceX as part of its latest financial reporting. The Google parent valued its SpaceX holdings at approximately $94.1 billion at the end of June, including shares subject to short- and longer-term selling restrictions.
The disclosure shed some more light on the scale of Alphabet’s relationship with SpaceX, which dates back to an investment made alongside Fidelity in 2015. However, the subsequent decline in SpaceX’s share price reduced the current market value of that position.
Starship Launch Faces Further Delay
Operational developments are also influencing sentiment. SpaceX postponed its latest Starship launch from South Texas after weather conditions interfered with the visibility required to monitor the spacecraft’s heat shield during flight.
The mission had already been delayed after several engines on the Super Heavy booster failed to ignite during an earlier launch attempt. SpaceX subsequently replaced multiple Raptor engines and completed more ground testing. The upcoming flight is expected to carry 20 Starlink satellites while testing Starship’s deployment and re-entry capabilities.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 program has a much steadier launch cadence. The company successfully launched 24 Starlink satellites from California on July 21, one day after a rare last-second abort.
For now, SpaceX's share price may stay volatile as investors balance long-term growth potential against its elevated valuation, heavy investment requirements and immediate pressure from short sellers.